Retro Slashers

Dave Stewart is a Writer/Project Manager at an advertising company by day, and a freelancer at night. He has written, mainly about movies, for The Buzz, Rue Morgue, and Cathay Pacific's in-flight entertainment magazine Studio CX. A grad of Humber College's (Toronto) Film & TV Production program, Dave has directed and co-written short films, one of which (Florid) won the Viewer's Choice Award at the 2004 Reel Island Film Festival. He has been heard as a movie reviewer and pop culture commentator on CBC Radio, and he has edited and contributed scripts and ideas to television productions including My Messy Bedroom and Thrill on the Hill (CBC-TV's Canada Day Celebration). Dave's movie review cartoon strip And Yet I Blame Hollywood was adapted and animated as 26 two-minute television interstitials on CBC-TV's late night program ZeD, each episode written by Dave. You can contact him at [email protected].

If you’ve ever wondered why an actress who wanted to escape her Scream Queen persona would do six horror flicks in a row, or why Curtis’ hair looked so bad in Halloween II, the answers are all here, folks!

Teenage Wasteland is a welcome addition to the list of essential books about horror movies that includes Michael Weldon’s Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, John McCarty’s Official Splatter Movie Guide and Stephen Thrower’s Nightmare U.S.A.

The Centerfold Girls is a grimy and grim precursor to 80’s slashers like Maniac and Don’t Answer the Phone; it’s also a prime example of 70’s Grindhouse filmmaking. With its dark take on that 70’s standard, the Battle of the Sexes, an argument can easily be made for this as a feminist horror film.

Posters help sell a movie. They catch the public’s eye and, if you’re the right target for what they’re selling, they should encourage you to buy that ticket. Though the art is somewhat dead today (too many Photoshopped pictures of teen stars, not enough design), there are still plenty of examples from the golden age [...]

Looking at the flicks that paved the way for Halloween and the heyday of slasher movies. “Blood Feast is like a Walt Whitman poem – it’s no good, but it’s the first of its type”. – Blood Feast director Hershell Gordon Lewis Blood Feast is a joy. The world’s first splatter film delivers the goods [...]

A kid in the 70’s, I grew up like a Monster Kid was supposed to. I began with the Universal horror classics like Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy, and then graduated to Hammer Horror, Godzilla movies, etc. Support was provided by The Monster Times, Famous Monsters and all the Warren horror magazines, as well as [...]

Looking at the flicks that paved the way for Halloween and the heyday of slasher movies. ALICE, SWEET ALICE (1976) Proto-Slashers frequently contain more plot and depth of character than later straight up classic slashers. A case in point is Alfred Sole’s killer-on-the-loose feature “Alice, Sweet Alice” (a.k.a. “Communion”, a.k.a. “Holy Terror”). Set in 1960′s [...]

IF YOU GO DOWN IN THE WOODS TODAY, YOU’RE IN FOR A BIG SURPRISE. First up, a confession… I shamelessly neglected to mention this terrific flick in my “Great Red North” piece about Canadian slasher flicks a few months back. Truth is, it should have been front and centre in the piece. “Rituals” is an [...]

Looking at the flicks that paved the way for Halloween and the heyday of slasher movies. THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1945)

More slasher and proto-slasher discs are on their way. October 13: The Stepfather This terrific 1987 slasher has been M.I.A. on DVD for far too long. Lost’s Terry O’Quinn stars as a family man who, when disappointed by his family, simply kills them, changes his identity, and moves on to a new family until they, [...]